I spent last week up at the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center in Indiana. I was part of the team that trained a group of US government civilians heading to Afghanistan for a year. Last month, my role was as a mentor for a team of students. This time, I was what we call a "subject matter expert". This meant that I worked with our Afghan role-players to ensure that the training events were well coordinated, the role-players had an idea as to how the students might react, and the events went off on schedule. It can be a nerve-wracking job, but it's a lot of fun.
You could think of my role as the director and stage manager of a play in which only half the participants know what the script is. Yes, there is a script: we have very definite goals in mind for each event. These goals are increasingly complex as the training progresses and build on previous events. In the first event, the student teams meet a local Afghan official. It's a basic meet-and-greet. The students are informed on very short notice of the meeting and have to learn something about the official, try to figure out what his interests are, prepare the meeting room as best they can, and determine which team member is going to fill each role. Then they have to do the meeting. It usually goes well, but it can go south in a hurry. Last month, the official asked my student team about Donald Trump's veracity (a very realistic question as many Afghans watch American politics). One of the students replied that "all politicians are liars". This, to an Afghan politician. Ooops! Fortunately, the other team members helped the guy recover from his faux pas. That's why we do this training: put the students in a safe environment where they have to put their training into practical use, and where mistakes aren't going to result in permanent damage.
Our Afghan role-players are wonderful people. Many of them were driven out of their homes by the Soviets, or warlords, or the Taliban, and are eager to help the US rebuild the country. Some were diplomats, some were officers or soldiers in the Army or Air Force, several were police officers, others were businessmen, teachers, village elders, scholars, and farmers. One was a smuggler. One has gone back to Afghanistan and put his life on the line three times as an interpreter with US forces. Most have lost family members - wives, husbands, parents, sons, daughters, or other close relative - to the fighting that has raged in the country for 30 years. Many still have family in Afghanistan. I won't post any photos of them as that might endanger their family members still in-country. But they have an amazing dedication to this job. They bring insight, intelligence, and wit to their interactions with our students. And, as one who was trained by these very same people five years ago, I can tell you from first-hand knowledge that their efforts are invaluable.
Outside of Muscatatuck, these men and women get little respect. They are treated with suspicion because they're Muslims and Afghans. They get told to "go home" way too often, even though many of them are now US citizens. Extra attention and pat-downs in airports are a given. Yet they still continue to show up, every time, to train people heading to Afghanistan.
So the next time you hear some idiot condemning all Muslims and Afghans as terrorists or worse, tell them to sit on it. I work with Muslims and Afghans. We are damned lucky to have them!
You could think of my role as the director and stage manager of a play in which only half the participants know what the script is. Yes, there is a script: we have very definite goals in mind for each event. These goals are increasingly complex as the training progresses and build on previous events. In the first event, the student teams meet a local Afghan official. It's a basic meet-and-greet. The students are informed on very short notice of the meeting and have to learn something about the official, try to figure out what his interests are, prepare the meeting room as best they can, and determine which team member is going to fill each role. Then they have to do the meeting. It usually goes well, but it can go south in a hurry. Last month, the official asked my student team about Donald Trump's veracity (a very realistic question as many Afghans watch American politics). One of the students replied that "all politicians are liars". This, to an Afghan politician. Ooops! Fortunately, the other team members helped the guy recover from his faux pas. That's why we do this training: put the students in a safe environment where they have to put their training into practical use, and where mistakes aren't going to result in permanent damage.
Our Afghan role-players are wonderful people. Many of them were driven out of their homes by the Soviets, or warlords, or the Taliban, and are eager to help the US rebuild the country. Some were diplomats, some were officers or soldiers in the Army or Air Force, several were police officers, others were businessmen, teachers, village elders, scholars, and farmers. One was a smuggler. One has gone back to Afghanistan and put his life on the line three times as an interpreter with US forces. Most have lost family members - wives, husbands, parents, sons, daughters, or other close relative - to the fighting that has raged in the country for 30 years. Many still have family in Afghanistan. I won't post any photos of them as that might endanger their family members still in-country. But they have an amazing dedication to this job. They bring insight, intelligence, and wit to their interactions with our students. And, as one who was trained by these very same people five years ago, I can tell you from first-hand knowledge that their efforts are invaluable.
Outside of Muscatatuck, these men and women get little respect. They are treated with suspicion because they're Muslims and Afghans. They get told to "go home" way too often, even though many of them are now US citizens. Extra attention and pat-downs in airports are a given. Yet they still continue to show up, every time, to train people heading to Afghanistan.
So the next time you hear some idiot condemning all Muslims and Afghans as terrorists or worse, tell them to sit on it. I work with Muslims and Afghans. We are damned lucky to have them!
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